Cross-Continental Buzz: Colin Farrell

Pic pair boost actor

Irish bad boy Colin Farrell has had a curate’s egg of a career. He was marked out as a Hollywood leading man early on, put on American accents, but never quite landed in the A-list. He has increasingly strayed back to Ireland in search of more interesting roles, winning acclaim last year for his troubled hitman in Martin McDonagh’s “In Bruges.” He arrives at Toronto as the lead in two Irish movies — Neil Jordan’s “Ondine” and Danis Tanovic’s “Triage.” In “Ondine,” he plays a fisherman who catches a woman in his net, and thinks she’s a mermaid. In “Triage,” he’s a war photographer haunted by the death of a friend. Director Tanovic is Bosnian, but Farrell was a prime mover behind the project. He originally saw the script when it was in development at Mirage, then encouraged Irish producer Alan Maloney to get involved with Tanovic and his producer Cedomir Kolar. Farrell’s reps are privately saying “Triage” is the best perf of his career. Success in either role might help Farrell to overcome the embarrassment of being skewered by former girlfriend Emma Forrest in her script inspired by their break-up, “Liars A-E,” which Richard Linklater shoots for Miramax this fall.